Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped

This lovely Monday morning began with another yummy oatmeal breakfast, followed shortly thereafter by devotions. Working through the Sermon on the Mount has been meaningful, and this morning I was especially encouraged by the verse we were studying today (Matt 5:6). Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, which led us to talk about striving for right relationships and depending on God, seemed relevant for our time here. Relationships are a really big part of the Burkinabe culture, and I think we are learning a lot of good things about that (and trying to experience it in our somewhat limited language skills!).

Then we walked down to the CAH (Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped) for our tour with Matt Walsh. It was incredibly inspiring to see everything the center is involved in (even after having seen the center and had the tour when I was here in Jan '09). Our first stop was the garden, where they have plans to plant many fruit trees, have goats for loan to families of handicapped children that are in need, and start a model garden for the community members, students and apprentices to learn from. The potential for the community and handicapped children/families is huge.

Next, we got a tour of the buildings (all of which have been built in the past decade!) - the school, library (noteworthy for Burkina), physical therapy rooms, and where they make the prosthetic legs, braces, trikes, etc. It was quite meaningful to see where and who actually does the work we have heard so much about during our time with the Collaboratory at Messiah College.

Our welcome here is warm. The Messiah College teams have been coming for many years, thanks to Dr. Vader, and several of the full time missionaries here were once Messiah graduates. Also, our welcome was QUITE warm on the actual weather front; today was sunny, around hundred degrees and 100% humid! We're drinking well, though, and hopefully starting to adapt!

After lunch and a brief sieste time, we all headed back to the Center to begin our work. Katie and I (Bethany) observed in a 3rd and 4th grade class. We learned some new signs since the teachers at the CAH teach in French and sign simultaneously, since many of the students are deaf. They ended class half an hour early (leaving the students working in the class) to have a brief faculty meeting about the "carnival" tomorrow. I enjoyed seeing the teachers and staff all together and hearing the plans for the fun tomorrow. A few of us (John Meyer, Alex, Katie and I) will be helping out with a few of the games, so that should be fun!

The engineers working on the trike project spent the afternoon unpacking their tools and starting some initial preparations and welding - with the help (at least onlooking) of many children at the center.

As our French and/or Gourma and/or sign language greetings, words and phrases are slowly increasing, but the children and people here are very polite and excited about our meager attempts. It is going to be good to spend time getting to know the people and culture here!

-Bethany